"Oh, darn it" Vince muttered as he slowly got up, his long, blonde hair dirty and caked with mud. He had been fishing in his favorite spot when he heard a boom. Afraid the others were hurt, he started running towards their tree hut, when he tripped and landed in a mud puddle. Muttering, he got up and shook himself off.

When Vince reached the clearing, he fell back in surprise. Instead of Nick being seriously injured, he was standing next to little Flame, beaming. Oh, great, just great, this can't be good.

"Did-he-Flame-explosion-make?" Vince stumbled over the words his brown eyes clouded with shock and disbelief.

"Yes." Nick smiled down at Flame. Long, pitch black hair covered most of his young face. But it was his eyes that gave him his name. His eyes were so dark they appeared black, but when he was angry you could swear they were red. He was only eight, but caused the most trouble. Flame was also Nick, 12, the leader's, favorite. Vince and Johnny both got along with Flame, after all, they were like family, but sometimes the fact he was the favorite caused a bit of jealousy and sarcasm between them.

"But he- and you- you're happy" stuttered Vince.

'You should be happy too. Johnny tells us of other people- on the island. This could be a way of defense against them."

"But Nick, they might not be harmful. Maybe they shipwrecked like us. Maybe, they survived from the same wreck we did." It was Johnny, his strawberry-blonde hair matted with water, his emerald eyes sparkling.

"No one else survived." Nick snapped. He whirled around to face Vince, his shoulder length brown hair slapping Vince in the face. "We-are-the- only- survivors, got that?"

Vince glared at Nick. Some times he could be so stubborn. But getting upset so suddenly over a small thing such as someone else surviving-that just wasn't like him. There was definitely something Nick wasn't telling him.

Nick couldn't sleep. He kept tossing and turning. Every night he had the same strange dream. Four kids swimming towards to the island, but when he tried to get a closer look at them, they looked different from Johnny, Vince, and Flame. Before he could see their faces, they disappeared.

Vince woke up to Nick's moaning. He looked around him, it was still dark. Quietly, he crawled to the ladder leading down from the tree, and climbed down. Snap! The bottom ring of the ladder broke. Nick can fix it later, he thought. Now I just have to hurry before anyone sees me.

Awaken by the sound of the ladder ring snapping, Johnny quickly jumped out of the tree. I wonder where he's going; he wondered when he saw Vince through a break in the trees.

"Vince, Vince" Johnny whispered as loud as he dared.

Vince stopped in his tracks, startled by the voice, but quickly calmed when he realized it was Johnny. There were many differences between they boys- Vince was blonde-haired and eleven, Johnny was strawberry- blonde and ten, Vince was tall and skinny, and Johnny was short. But, they had become friends over the years, and learned to trust in each other greatly.

Vince smiled faintly. "Oh, it's you."

"Where are you headed to?"

"Your look-out tree, I know there is something about other people that Nick isn't telling us." Vince replied.

The two boys crept along in silence, carefully avoiding stumps and roots until they reached the look-out tree. Even Nick didn't know what kind it was; it bore no fruit or flowers. It was the tallest tree by far and had many big, green leaves, making it the ideal hideout spot.

'You go up first, I'll follow you." Johnny offered.

At the top of the tree, they looked around. They didn't see anything for what seemed like eternity.

"Ok, I give up; let's go back to bed before Nick notices we're gone." Vince said. He was getting tired and wanted what little hours of sleep were left.

"Wait-look there- a fire!" Johnny said, barely able to contain his excitement.

Moaning, Flame looked around and realized he was on the ground. I must have fallen out of the tree. That would account for the pain in my back, he thought.

Realizing his back hurt too much too stand up on, he inched himself closer to the fire and fell back asleep.

"Is it a wildfire?" asked Vince. If it was a wildfire, it didn't mean that people were on the island, and it would just be trouble for them to put out. But, if it wasn't a wildfire that could only mean one thing…

"No, it doesn't look like a wildfire. I'm sure it's not a wildfire."